# snapper
## English
### Etymology 1

From snap +‎ -er.

#### Alternative forms

* schnapper (fish)

#### Pronunciation

* (General American) IPA: /ˈsnæpɚ/
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -æpə(ɹ)

#### Noun

snapper (plural snappers)
* One who, or that which, snaps.
    a snapper-up of bargains
    the snapper of a whip
* Any of approximately 100 different species of fish.
** (Australia, New Zealand) The fish Chrysophrys auratus, especially an adult of the species.
*** 1971, Harry Robertson, “Ballina Whalers” (lyrics):
    Heigh-ho ye trawler men come on, forget the snapper and the prawn, And it’s out of Ballina we’ll sail, a-fishing for the Humpback whale.
** (US) Any of the family Lutjanidae of percoid fishes, especially the red snapper.
** (US) A small bluefish.
* (Ireland, slang) A (human) baby.
** 1990, Roddy Doyle, The Snapper:
* (American football) The player who snaps the ball to start the play.
* (US) Small, paper-wrapped item containing a minute quantity of explosive composition coated on small bits of sand, which explodes noisily when thrown onto a hard surface.
* (slang) One who takes snaps; a photographer.
** 2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 22:The police snapper was on his tiptoes, angling for a vertical shot of the body.
* (US, informal) The snapping turtle.
* The green woodpecker, or yaffle (Picus viridis).
* A snap beetle (family Elateridae).
* (historical) A telegraphic device with a flexible metal tongue for producing clicks like those of the sounder.
* (obsolete) A percussive musical instrument consisting of a pair of items to be snapped together; castanet or bones.
* (US, colloquial) A string bean.
* (slang) The vulva.
** 2004, Mary B. Morrison, Never Again Once More:At thirty-nine, her snapper was snapping at practically every man that appeared halfway decent and had a pulse.
** 2010, Phil Torcivia, Nice Meeting You:Then, get this, when we finished, she grabbed what looked like one of her husband's T-shirts, wiped her snapper, threw it into the back, […]
* (slang, entertainment) A punchline.
** 1976, Larry Wilde, How the Great Comedy Writers Create Laughter, page 101:I don't want a pause before the snapper.
** 2011, Judy Kerr, Acting is Everything:The end should always be a “snapper.” The punchline of a monologue is extremely important. Find a good one.
** 2018, Michelle Ann Abate, Funny Girls, page 55:In fact, he began the comic by coming up with the final panel, which he called “the snapper,” and worked backward.
* (US politics, historical) A supporter of Senator Hill's premature scheduling of the Democratic National Committee convention of 1892.
    Antonym: anti-snapper

##### Hyponyms

* (Chrysophrys auratus): cockney (very young), red bream (adolescent), squire (pre-adult)

##### Derived terms

* black snapper (Sistrurus catenatus)
* Colorado snapper
* cubera snapper
* finger-snapper
* lane snapper
* long snapper
* mackerel snapper
* mahogany snapper
* mangrove snapper
* mutton snapper
* pink snapper (Chrysophrys auratus)
* rafter snapper
* red snapper
* snapper biscuit
* snapper-upper
* snipper-snapper
* whippersnapper

### Etymology 2

From Middle English snaperen, likely formed with the frequentative suffix -eren (Modern English -er). For the stem compare Norwegian Nynorsk snåva (“to stumble”), Swedish snäva (“to stumble”), obsolete German schnappen (“to totter, to limp”), Middle High German snaben, Middle Low German snaven (“to stumble”).

#### Verb

snapper (third-person singular simple present snappers, present participle snappering, simple past and past participle snappered) (obsolete outside Northern England and Scotland)
* To stumble, to trip.
* (figuratively) To fall into error; to make a mistake, and especially to stumble morally.
** c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 65, lines 141–143:A curate in specyall To snappar and to fall Into this opyn cryme

#### Noun

snapper (plural snappers) (chiefly Scotland)
* A stumble, a trip.
* An error, a blunder, especially a moral slip-up.

### References

* ↑ 1990, Richard Allan, Australian Fish and How to Catch Them, →ISBN, page 309.
* ↑ “Snapper”, entry in 1966, An Encyclopedia of New Zealand.

### Anagrams

* nappers, parpens, presnap, parsnep, Nappers